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First Contact [Scroll 1]     日本語で見る | Read in Japanese 日本語で見る | Read in Japanese

Heather Velez, Brown '05

[First Contact]

[First Contact]

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The first panel of this illustrated scroll by an anonymous Japanese artist provides the observer with a Japanese interpretation of the early relations between Japan and the United States and the separate histories that led up to "first contact." During the European age of exploration, the Portuguese traveled westward to Japan. Jesuit missionaries accompanied Portuguese merchants because Christianity was an integral part of the Portuguese goal of contact with non-Western peoples. The missionaries thrived in Japan and acquired such a large following that soon the shoguns viewed the religion as a political threat. Consequently, during the seventeenth century, Christians and the practice of Christianity were prohibited. Moreover, in 1639, the Bakufu established a policy of isolation, or national seclusion. With the exception of the Dutch, Westerners were prohibited from interacting with Japan and Japanese were barred from leaving the country.

About two hundred years after the Japanese closed their doors, Americans began to look beyond their borders. The United States, motivated by the idea of manifest destiny, tried to expand their influence and wield more power in the world. The Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804, the annexation of Texas and Oregon, the Gadsden Purchase, joined in 1853 by the first expedition to Japan under Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry are all examples of this impulse.

In the panel, the American officer points his gun at the Japanese peasant and with the other hand points to a place beyond the panel. The Japanese artist probably considers the Americans as aggressors. The Japanese man appears prostrate with his arms outstretched towards the officer. The artist seems to believe that the Japanese pleas; the Japanese are not barbarians like the Americans and work for peaceful solutions. Commodore Perry led his expedition with the clear intent of standing up to the Japanese people. He wanted to demonstrate that the United States would not take "No" for an answer. His plan was "to drive by force." Wilhelm Heine, the resident artist, in his own words explained Perry's strategy was to "meet force with force."1 And as commented in the official Narrative of the Expedition, "Perry's attitude and action...gives indications of the compelling influence that the concept of manifest destiny had upon American foreign policy"2 On the 1853 voyage, Perry's only concession was that the Americans would return the following spring, which according to him, would give the Japanese an adequate amount of time to discuss the issues.

The use of the color blue is striking, it stands out from the surrounding earth tones of brown and green. Unlike the colors red and purple, blue [made using indigo dye] was not forbidden by Japanese edict. The dark navy blue used in this panel, according to Kunio Fukuda, was employed most frequently.3 Most likely the artist worked with Prussian blue, discovered in Western Europe and introduced to Japan in the eighteenth century. Fukuda conjectured that because blue was a familiar color to all Japanese it was popular among artisans. Moreover, blue was ubiquitous "possibly because the Japanese never worshiped an almighty god envisaged as dwelling in heaven, blue never became associated with lofty religious sentiments."4 The US naval officer and the mountain in the background are the only two objects to appear in blue. The mountain most likely is Mount Fuji, which is easily visible from Edo [Toyko] Bay. The inclusion of Mount Fuji in the panel is significant as it is a revered landmark of Japan. Sangku shinko, a belief held by many Japanese past and present, is that mountains are sacred. The gods are believed to live in the mountains. The mountains are also environmental assets, they provide for and protect the animals and produce the streams that give water to surrounding areas.

 

References

  1. Wilhelm Heine, With Perry to Japan, trans. and ed. Frederic Trautmann (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), 3.
  2. House Record, Narrative of the Expedition (1856): 626, quoted in Wilhelm Heine, With Perry to Japan.
  3. Kunio Fukuda, The Colors of Japan (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2000), 28.
  4. Ibid., 28.